Parisian Life Has A

Parisian Life has a “playful” and “relaxed mood” that does not provide “the slightest hint of the
stormy
happenings to come” in Luna’s personal life. It portrayed a scene inside a café in Paris with a woman
identified as a courtesan or a prostitute representing “fallen womanhood”, who was about to rise from a
sofa overshadowing three men placed at the far left corner of the painting. The way she was seated seems
like the inverted islands of the country (with the arm representing Palawan). That lady is our motherland,
the Philippines. She was wearing pink and white to symbolize the purity of the country, but her
suggestive seating position depicts abuse from its colonizers. It’s black turtleneck, which people believed
to be a rope pulling the woman up. She was being hung, and for experts, it symbolized the lack of
freedom of the country then. The experts also believed that the woman was with someone (maybe a
Spaniard) because of the appearance of the mug and the cap in the painting. And her face being not happy
in her position at that moment but trying not to let it show. The painted illustration captured the gathering
of three significant personas and heroes in Philippine History having a discussion about the Philippines.
Were Kawit, Cavite, the site of the birth of the 1898 Philippine lndependence is exact on the lady’s
womb, site of a birth. The three gentlemen are dressed in European garbs the top hats and the coats at the
left of the image are Luna himself, José Rizal, and Ariston Bautista Lin with an air of luxuriant self-
confidence as they enjoy a moment in a Parisian cafe, the three gentlemen have embraced the Western
lifestyle while remaining passionately Filipino at heart. In the larger context of history, Parisian Life is
therefore also a significant work, capturing a last gathering of great Filipinos on the eve of momentous
events.
This painting should put more expose to us Filipino, especially to the young ones. Because it’s an eye
opener, making us realize that the Parisian Life is a national treasure, and for us to move forward as a
nation, it is vital that we back ourselves up with the riches of our past.
Nikko Jay B. de la Rosa BSMT-1 Code: 064PARISIAN LIFE BY JUAN LUNA BASIC INFORMATION
•Title of the Work: PARISIAN LIFE•Artist’s Name: JUAN LUNA•Medium and Technique:Oil on
Canvas ; impressionism•Dimension or Measurement: 22 x 31 in.(57 x 79 cm.)•Date of Work: 1892
•Provenance: National Museum of Fine ArtsSEMIOTIC PLANE •VISUAL ELEMENTS- The artist was
able to convey multitude of messages in a limited space and through a simple subject. The two men stares
directly to the parisian lady. The other gentleman seems avoiding contact with the lady. It seems that
the three gentleman portrayed in the painting are Jose Rizal, the artist, and Ariston Bautista
Lin.•MEDIUM AND TECHNIQUE- Oil on Canvas. 22x 31 in. (57 x 79 cm.) -
impressionism•FORMAT OF WORK - I find the woman, when the image is reverse, resembles the map
of the Philippines. The lady was wearing pink and white which symbolize purity. The dark thing on the
lady’s neck means she is being tortured that symbolized lack of freedom. Her awkward posture suggest
that she has the struggle to seat properly.
One thing that is noticeable about the painting is the lady’s wealth. With her
dress and gloves, her coffee, and the mere fact that she’s there, where the
upper class of society would drink and socialize, evident with the three men in
the background. Despite all the lavish privileges she bears, trying staring into
the woman’s eyes, where she does not meet the audience, but looks down,
somewhat disappointed and unhappy’ut her face looked calmmood. there . Her
face looks calm, yet you can feel a vibe of unsatisfactory. Her posture may be
presented straight up to perceive the woman as proper and elite, but her
position also sets her relaxing on the cushion, her legs in an unusually
uncomfortable position, where she has been more buried in thought to notice
the uncomfortable position she has unconsciously taken. This may symbolize
where she as she has been busy to notice the uncomfortable lifestyle she has,
that she has just gotten used to it and has learned to ignore the misery of it.
Her leaning back shows that she is stopping to rest and look back at her
situation and assess her lifestyle. Even though her clothes and coffee are
things only the few can have, she feels the need for a cathartic moment, but
never felt it in the luxury of wealth; where it isn’t enough, or it isn’t the one
that truly satisfy her; where the luxury around her can’t save her from the
things in her head. We might not know why she feels what her body language
tells us, we know that luxury can’t save her from every misery she’ll feels right
now; and that can prove as a lesson to the viewers of the painting, that wealth
can never save us always, and can sometimes leave us empty even if we think
we have more.
Unlike the Spolarium, the Parisian Life has a relaxed and playful mood. There
are two special things about this painting. One is the lady portraying the
mirrored image of the map of the Philippines. If you reverse the painting, it will
look like the structure of the archipelago. The last is the meaning. Isolation.
Based on the painting by Juan Luna, the lady is sitting on the couch alone,
while there are three men chatting or conversing in a round table. The lady
portrays the Philippines that was isolated during the time of the colonizers
because the Filipinos didn’t have the freedom unless you have Spanish and
American blood. A well-known fact that the audience believe is the three men
wearing black coats were Juan Luna facing forward in the center, Dr. Jose
Rizal’s half turn back and Ariston Bautista Lin, sitting the closest to the lady,
who were on a voyage. Those three men on the painting were portrayed as
“Embraced Western Lifestyle while remaining Filipino at heart.”
Juan Luna
Juan Luna
The painting “Parisian Life” was painted by Juan Luna y Novicio. He was born
on October 23, 1857 at Badoc, Ilocos Norte and died on December 7, 1899 at
British Hong Kong. Juan Luna was a Filipino painter, sculptor and a political
activist of the Philippine Evolution in the late 19th century and he became one
of the first recognized Philippine artists. Don Lorenzo Guerrero became his
first tutor and convinced his parents to send him to Spain. There, he took
private lessons under Alejo Vera, a famous Spanish contemporary painter.
Alejo Vera took Luna in Rome wherein he was exposed to the immortal works
of the Renaissance masters.
Other than the “Parisian Life”, he also has some other famous
paintings/masterpieces, namely “The Spolarium”, “LaBatalla de Lepanto” (The
Battle of Lepanto), “El Pacto de Sangre” (The Blood Compact) and the “Don
Miguel de Legazpi”.
Details
The Parisian Life (also known as Interior d’un Café or Inside a Café) is an oil in
canvas impressionist painting. It is one of the paintings that in a period in Juan
Luna’s life, the tones and mood of his paintings shifted from dark to light. This
is also the only painting where Juan Luna himself is a character in the painting.
The Parisian Life

Located in National Museum of Fine Arts, Manila, Philippines
The painting (57 cm x 79 cm in dimension) currently owned by the
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is located at the National
Museum of Fine Arts. It is considered to be Juan Luna’s masterpiece that he
created in Paris, France.
After Juan Luna finished his masterpiece, it was exhibited only once in the
World’s Fair’s Saint Louis Exposition in the United States and won a silver
medal.
Ariston Bautista Lin, one of the characters in the painting, was the original
owner of The Parisian Life. Later on, the GSIS Museum bought it at Christie’s
auction house in Hong Kong at the price of $870000 (around P45.4 to P46
million). After procuring the painting, it was toured around the Philippines with
University of Santo Tomas’s Museum of Arts and Sciences as its last
destination.
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Parisian Life has a “playful” and “relaxed mood” that does not provide “the slightest hint of the

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